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User: Yartrebo

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Comments · 916

  1. Re:Recycling on Plastic Packages Cause Injuries, Revolt · · Score: 1

    It takes 2-3 pounds of raw materials to make 1 pound of plastic, the extra pounds being used for energy.

    Also, two wrongs don't make a right. The extra pollution and oil/natural gas used for the plastic is on top of what your vehicle will use.

  2. Re:And what do they expect *us* to do? on Plastic Packages Cause Injuries, Revolt · · Score: 1

    With spaghetti, packaging is not needed to keep the food from rotting. The package is there to make it easy to handle and to make it look attractive, but little more.

  3. Re:Too bad on Americans Drove Less in 2005 · · Score: 1

    Hmm ... perhaps you could find some old child seats that are a little smaller, or shave 2 cm off the side of each seat.

  4. Re:Too bad on Americans Drove Less in 2005 · · Score: 1

    I disagree. They are a status symbol in their own way. Perhaps not a status symbol for males or one you show off in front of others, but one nonetheless. Funny how you almost never see them in the area I live in (Queens, NYC), despite a pretty young population.

  5. Re:Too bad on Americans Drove Less in 2005 · · Score: 1

    Skiing - Skis do fit into a compact or subcompact car, though it is a fairly tight fit and might not be technically legal (obstructing the view). Since it's a pretty rare thing to do, not a big deal.
    Cycling - Install a bike rack.
    Build a deck - Have the lumber yard deliver or rent a truck (I was able to do so for only about $25 last time I needed lumber).
    Going to dinner - If they don't have cars of their own (unlikely), you can always hire a limo service.

  6. Re:Too bad on Americans Drove Less in 2005 · · Score: 1

    Enough groceries for a month will easily fit into even a subcompact. You can also fit about 4 kids + 1 driver into that same subcompact fairly easily. I doubt many families rich enough to afford a minivan have 5 or more kids.

  7. Re:Public Goods theory on Universal Wants a Slice of Apple's iPod Pie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Society pays a modest sum to cover the cost of production (perhaps 10% of current sales for music, movies, and video games) and then everybody owns everything. Buying full non-exclusive rights to well over 100,000 movies for maybe $10/year in taxes seems like a pretty good deal to me.

    Too bad Senator Disney would never even listen to this proposal.

  8. Re:Is this really a good thing? on Ban On Louisiana Video Game Law Now Permanent · · Score: 1

    My issue (which extends to movies and TV too) is that every person has different values. In particular, mine aren't terribly typical and I find the rating systems to be quite poor.

    In my view, "Pokemon" should get an R rating, mostly for its highly effective pro-materialist content. The trouble caused to parents, schools, and society at large far outweighs any entertainment value.

  9. Re:Super mirrors on Ban On Louisiana Video Game Law Now Permanent · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why is it always assumed that adults are somehow immune to the effects of violent games/TV/movies while kids will be horribly warped by it?

    Personally, I feel that there is some truth to the nasty media -> bad effects meme, but it effects adults too, and the type of content is far more important than rough metrics like violent scenes per hour.

    My gut feeling is that verbal violence (which usually does not involve curse words) and displays of disrespect have a far greater impact on people. It's both far more prevalent and much easier to imitate/believe than physical violence. "Saved by the Bell" is quite likely to bend many teenagers' beliefs towards conformity (more rigid gender roles, more focus on social rank, etc.). "Pokemon" has bent many kids towards materialist/consumerist views. "Star Trek: The Next Generation", despite showing people die and other forms of violence, is unlikely to engender either pro-violence/pro-militarist or antisocial behavior. Even "Power Rangers" probably has fairly muted effects since it's pretty devoid of any real substance.

  10. Re:maybe not scam? on 256GB Geometrically Encoded Paper Storage Device · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can you really print 4,096 dots per linear inch on paper and still be able to read each individual dot? My guess is that beyond 300 dpi or so bleeding becomes a major issue and somewhere beyond that the grain size of paper becomes an issue.

    Also, can you really have 256 distinguishable color levels on a piece of paper - especially considering that paper is not a uniform color on the micro-scale (it's made up of short strands of cellulose)?

    Even if all these problems can be overcome, there is the limiting factor of diffraction, which will limit any optical system (paper or otherwise) to a data density of about 1/wavelength^2, which is roughly the density of a DVD.

  11. Re:Exactly - Litvinenko on UK Schools Bans WiFi Due To Health Concerns · · Score: 1

    Radiation can transmute stable isotopes into radioactive isotopes. Carbon-14 is made in this way in the upper atmosphere.

  12. Re:ban wifi? what about other technologies? on UK Schools Bans WiFi Due To Health Concerns · · Score: 1

    If hit with nuclear radiation (or any neutron or very high energy photon source for that matter), the food itself will become lightly radioactive itself. If hit with lower-energy radiation (say ultraviolet or x-radiation), the food won't be radioactive but chemical bonds will be broken, making small amounts of a whole slew of potentially harmful chemicals.

  13. Re:The Coca-Cola Machines in the Cafeteria on UK Schools Bans WiFi Due To Health Concerns · · Score: 1

    It takes a lot more effort to get 100 calories from fruit than from soda pop and the sugar spike will be more muted if only because there's less sugar to cause the spike. Soda and fruit drinks are roughly pound-for-pound equivalent to fruit in terms of sugar content, but it's a whole lot easier to drink 3 pounds of soda (~1 very large fast food drink) than to eat 3 pounds of fruit.

    PS: Sugars are not needed to live or to be healthy. Starches (which are broken down into sugars during digestion) can fully fill their role.

  14. Re:How is this different on Archiving Digital Data an Unsolved Problem · · Score: 1

    Most file formats have easily distinguished headers, usually in the form of a 4-byte long code.

  15. Re:The best roundabout in the world... on Life Without Traffic Signs · · Score: 1

    I'm guessing the key to it working is that it is very large. It's still inefficient in terms of cars/sq. ft., as I expect all traffic circles to be.

    Limiting intersections to 2 roads (total of 4 directions) is probably a cheaper idea, but it sure is interesting for retrofit applications.

  16. Re:Actually, it is when you look at ALL the effect on Stop Global Warming With Smog? · · Score: 1

    This hair-brained scheme is not endorsed by your average climatologist, which are more interested in studying climate than playing politics anyway.

    Throwing that much SO2 in the air is indeed asking for trouble. For starters, it won't save the Greenland and West Antarctica ice caps from melting (a planet with SO2 + CO2 will be much warmer at the poles and slightly cooler at the equator). There's probably plenty more wrong, but that alone should be reason enough shelve this proposal.

  17. Re:Unsafe is safe, war is peace... on Life Without Traffic Signs · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What is the alternative you're suggesting? I live in NYC and the grid system is far better than what is done in the suburbs (cul-de-sacs mostly). Congestion is pretty rare outside of highways despite a very high population density (whereas some suburban roads can be backed up for hours, despite having nothing denser than box stores). There are drawbacks, but in terms of residents per sq. ft. of asphalt, the grid seems to work very well.

    PS: Our grid system would work without lights in most intersections. Where you have 10-lane wide boulevards lights are a necessity, but many of the less important lights could be removed with no ill effect on congestion.

  18. Re:they're cool on The World's Most-High Tech Urinal · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So long as it's real soap (sodium and fatty acids), it's non-toxic and unlikely to cause much of a mess. It's even digestible and is metabolized in much the same way as fat.

  19. Re:Been there, done that on NASA Proposes Manned Asteroid Mission · · Score: 1

    A rail gun based cannon could easily send materials out of the moon's gravity well, such as to a factory in high Earth orbit. There is no atmosphere on the moon so precise aiming is very doable.

  20. Re:Wireless on What Not To Do With Your Data · · Score: 1

    Pretty easy. A missing cover on a drive bay is plenty big enough for a rat to get in. Even a PCI slot missing its cover is big enough for some rodents to get in.

  21. Re:Privacy aspect on What Not To Do With Your Data · · Score: 1

    Perhaps they wrote all-zeroes eighty times. Random data done seven times (or one, zero, one, zero, one, zero, random) should be good enough even against the KGB or CIA.

  22. Re:Privacy aspect on What Not To Do With Your Data · · Score: 1

    Drilling a few holes will leave most of the data there for a determined person to read. Smashing the platters to bits is much more effective, and melting them down completely destroys the data.

  23. Re:"word processors"???? on Taking a Crack At Recycling E-Waste · · Score: 1

    Every typewriter can do bold and underline. To underline, you press backspace then underscore. To bold, you press backspace then press the same letter again.

  24. Re:Western Decadence on Jailtime For Leeching Wireless? · · Score: 1

    What do people do when they need surgery? Do they give them a bullet to bite on and hope they don't squirm too much? I can't imagine having having any surgical procedure done without sedatives.

  25. Re:WTF on YouTube Removal Highlights Media Self-Censorship · · Score: 1

    If said politician openly hates gays, then it is a major case of "do as I say, not as I do," and is very much of interest to the public. Republicans have been pushing the anti-gay issue pretty hard, so I do consider it relevant.